Your brand and anti-advergames

Several weeks ago I was contacted by a writer for a business magazine who asked if I would comment as a branding expert on a relatively new category of online games known as "anti-advergames". The writer wanted to know my views in relation to how such anti-advergames can impact brands from the marketers’ and brand owners’ perspective.

I admitted my ignorance because I had never heard of anti-advergames prior to that call and therefore was not qualified to comment.

After subsequent research and discussion with a lawyer friend of mine, I now have a better understanding of anti-advergames and think they might be a significant enough phenomenon to discuss in case you one day find your brand entangled with them.

First of all, let’s define advergaming. Advergaming is the practice of using games, particularly computer games, to advertise or promote a product, organization or viewpoint.

Anti-advergames, therefore, are online games that target companies and corporations and take an activist position against such promotion of companies, products and viewpoints. They are the opposite of advergames. These games take players through simulated aspects of business operations and either overtly condemn companies or more subtly encourage players to question the motives, morals and social values of the companies they target.

For instance, one anti-advergame targets the McDonald's Corporation by asking players to simulate the burning of forests in order to clear pasture land for cattle (while natives can be seen running from the flames), questions the practice of injecting cattle with growth hormones and rails against corporate management by questioning staffing practices.

In another anti-advergame, "Disaffacted!", the game creators target FedEx Kinkos by putting the player in the shoes of demotivated employees trying to manage a Kinkos store while demonstrating apathy and lack of concern for the customer. These games target specific companies by name and attempt to promote a social and/or political agenda by painting the companies as evil corporate citizens who care about little more than profitability.

Why should you be aware of anti-advergames?

With rapid media and technology advancements coupled with increased demand for new digital entertainment and ease of message distribution, there will be an increase in these types of campaigns that attack companies and attempt to shape public opinion against them.

Right now it appears this is being done with complete disregard to copyright and trademark law on the part of game creators. They violate copyright and trademark law and use brand names and logos without permission under the guise of "parody" and “education”. You may one day find your brand the target of such activism.

Brand managers seem to be in a precarious position.

If targeted companies respond and initiate litigation to stop anti-advergame creators from violating trade names and perpetrating slander or libel, then they run the risk of generating a lot of negative publicity and creating more awareness for those very games that might otherwise only have limited reach and impact. Perhaps these gamers are so insignificant that they are not worthy of response anyway.

As a marketer, a certain amount of restraint is in order to allow for creative expression against your brand, however, you must also guard your brand’s honor and be ready to take action if significant damage is caused and can be proven. Smart marketers must be aware of anti-advergames and be prepared to take action if such activism targeted toward their brands causes significant damages and destroys hard earned brand equity.

As an aside, I wonder how anti-advergame creators feel about the computer manufacturers, electric companies and Internet service providers they rely upon to execute & distribute their anti-corporate campaigns. I also wonder if these social activists burn down forests in order to plant soybeans and other vegetables so they can subsequently kill those plants and eat organically on the moral high ground.

Unless they are completely self-sufficient in their lifestyles and conduct no commerce whatsoever in the course of living their lives, then they too are part of the complex world of commerce and enterprise that they so gleefully attack.